James Clavell
James Clavell
James Clavell, born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell, was an Australian-born Britishnovelist, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his epic Asian Saga series of novels and their televised adaptations, along with such films as The Great Escapeand To Sir, with Love...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth10 October 1924
CountryAustralia
stories middle ifs
All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning.
decision bullets right-time
Guard yourself and your conscience no one else will and know that a bad decision at the right time can destroy you far more surely than any bullet!
dignity shoguns sufferers
There is no dignity for either the sufferer or the torturer
faces stranger should
Anger is something you should only vent in front of intimates, and friends and relations. Never be angry in front of strangers because you lose face.
christian loyalty mean
Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for 'love' as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need.
karma life-and-death
Life and death are the same...Leave karma to karma.
alive christ
Christ, it's so good to be alive.
murder committed humans
You've committed murder just as much as Hélène did. You killed a fly with a human head, she killed a human with a fly head. If she murdered so did you.
laughter suffering earth
Isn’t it only through laughter that we become one with the gods and thus can endure life and can overcome all the horror and waste and suffering here on earth? …Isn’t it only through laughter we can stay human?
wise alive events
Changi for me - of course it's easy to be wise after the event, and to discuss it cleverly after the event - was about as near as you can get to being dead and still be alive.
karma clever husband
How baffling it was that even the most cunning and clever people would frequently see only what they wanted to see, and would rarely look beyond the thinnest of facades. Or they would ignore reality, dismissing it as the facade. And then, when their whole world fell to pieces...they would tear their topknots or rend their clothes and bewail their karma, blaming gods or kami or luck or their lords or husbands or vassals-anything or anyone-but never themselves.
stars taken men
Isn't man but a blossom taken by wind, and only the mountains and the sea and the stars and this land of the gods everlasting?
sky clouds excuse
What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?
atheist atheism firsts
First the priests arrive. Then the conquistadores.